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A LITTLE PC HISTORY
WHERE WE'VE BEEN WITH NO IDEA WHERE WE'RE GOING!
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In the beginning . . .
Computing or calculating by machine began in the middle east
with the use of pegs or stones in trays or channels. The
Babylonians developed the idea of stone or bead counters into
the more modern abacus - modern in the sense that the abacus is
still in use today and in the hands of an experienced operator
can calculate results faster than a computer!
The beauty of the abacus is its simplicity in construction and
operation. Inexpensive beads of stone or wood and a simple frame
make up the abacus and the uneducated could quickly be trained
in its use.
In the 8th and 9th centuries we note the rise of the Arabic
numeral system which slowly spread through Europe and the then
civilized world. Although a superior calculating system, Arabic
numerals required the user to understand the more complicated
numerical theory associated with the system.
By the early 1600's Napier (often associated with the
development of logarithms and their practical application)
introduced a series of rods which could be used for
multiplication - a crude slide rule system.
Soon, ever more complicated "calculating engines" or primitive
mechanical computing devices appeared. One example is the
complex Pascaline invented by Blaise Pascal.
By 1791 the stage was set. Babbage, an English mathematician and
inventor with the help of Ada Byron (daughter of lord Byron, the
famous poet) developed the ideas for two mechanical calculators
or "number engines." The Difference Engine was a device to solve
polynomial equations by the methods of differences. The
Analytical Engine (which was never built)) was designed as a
general computing device. Both were mechanical in concept using
gears, rods and cams to perform calculations. Unfortunately
neither machine was built since the tooling and machining
technology of the day was imprecise and could not construct the
accurate parts needed.
However the models and planning of Babbage and Byron did lead to
important preliminary computing concepts still in use today. As
an aside, we should note from the work of Babbage and Byron that
computing even in its infancy was strongly influenced by BOTH
women and men - let's face it, computing is NOT gender specific!
Next we jump to the United States. By 1880 a problem had arisen
with the United States census. By that time, it took 7 years to
process all of the information gathered by the Census Bureau
since all tabulation was done by hand on paper. It was assumed
that the 1890 census might take 10 to 12 years to tabulate.
Clearly a better method was needed to crunch the volume of
numbers and data. A public competition was held to produce a
better indexing or mechanical system to tabulate future census
results. Herman Hollerith, a census employee, handily won by
suggesting the use of punch cards and a form of punch card
reader which tabulated the results in six weeks. Hollerith, wise
in the ways of computing devices and seeing a good opportunity
went on to found the Tabulating Machine Company (later changed
to IBM). Hollerith might be thus thought of as our first
computer entrepreneur!
The advent of World War II provided the impetus for the
development of more refined computing devices. The Mark I was an
electromechanical device using relays. IBM built that computer
for the Navy. Later, the Colossus was built for the British and
used for wartime code breaking of German radio transmissions.
The ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) was constructed at Iowa State
and was the first fully electronic digital computer.
Admiral Grace Hopper, known as "Amazing Grace" to some, was a
naval officer and pioneer in the field of computer programming
during the 1940's and 50's. An innovative and fundamental
thinker, she recognized that computers could be used for
business applications - a pioneering insight beyond the then
conventional use of computers for scientific and military
applications. Her programming language called "Flowmatic" later
evolved into COBOL, the most common and still popular language
for programming business software. She died in 1992 and is
buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Computing science continued to evolve rapidly . . .
Eniac was the most famous of the early computers and contained
18,000 vacuum tubes and was used by the Army for ballistics
calculations.
Edvac was the first stored memory computing device which did
away with rewiring tasks associated with changing computer
programs and represented a true computer breakthrough. This
first generation of machines running from roughly 1951 through
1958 featured computers characterized by the use of radio type
vacuum tubes. But the pace was increasing . . .
Second generation machines such as the famous Univac were
designed as true general or universal purpose machines and could
process both alphabetic and numeric problems and data. Punch
cards still formed the major input path to the machines of this
era and all programming was done in complex low level machine
language commands.
By 1959 with the invention of the transistor, computers began to
shrink in size and cost and operate faster and more dependably
than the huge vacuum tube models. Programming languages began to
feature English-like instructions rather than cumbersome machine
code or assembly language. Fortran and Cobol are two modern
"high level" languages developed during this period and still in
use today.
In many respects, the personal computer industry began in 1974
when the Intel corporation introduced a CPU integrated circuit
chip named the 8080. It contained 4,500 transistors and could
address 64K of memory through a 16 bit data bus. The 8080 was
the integrated circuit brain behind the early MITS Altair
personal computer which fired popular interest in home and small
business computing when it appeared on the July 1975 cover of
Popular Electronics Magazine. The first MITS Altair contained no
keyboard or monitor, only crude LED lights and tiny flip
switches to facilitate programming.
Four years later in 1978 Intel released the 8086 chip which had
a tenfold increase in performance over the 8080 chip. When IBM
began the design phase of the first desktop PC units in 1980 and
1981, they chose the cousin of the 8086, the Intel 8088 chip, to
power the first PC which was designed for modest corporate use
but quickly exploded in popularity due to an excellent design,
spectacular keyboard and openess to upgrade by the addition of
"plug in" boards and cards.
Early IBM PC computers retained a link with the past by allowing
the addition of a small "Baby Blue" circuit board which could
run software programs based on the then dominant CPM operating
system.
Finally we come to the present decade . . .
August 1981. Original IBM PC (personal computer) introduced. Has
options for monochrome and CGA color display. Receives generally
good reviews and acceptance by business users and a few home
users. Original DOS version 1.0 released which supported only
single sided disks (160K capacity). Later version 1.1 corrected
bugs (problems) in the DOS programming code and provided double
sided disks (320K capacity), and faster disk access, date and
time stamping and better serial communications.
August 1982. Monochrome resolution of PC screen increased with
introduction of the Hercules graphics card circuit. Combined
with the LOTUS 123 spreadsheet, the IBM PC was now a hot choice
for corporate computing.
November 1982. Compaq portable arrives. First IBM clone on the
market. The IBM PC standard is growing in popularity. Clone
makers start to copy the PC in earnest. Software companies such
as Phoenix technologies prepare BIOS and SYS programs which run
the same as the IBM BIOS program without the copyright violation
which every clone computer tries to avoid. BIOS stands for basic
input and output system and is the core software essential to
keyboard, disk and screen input/output. The BIOS is considered
legally protected IBM software code, but can be simulated (or
emulated) closely by a clever programmer in an attempt to do the
same job, without using exactly the same programming code.
March 1983. IBM introduces the PC XT (increased memory and hard
drive capability). DOS version 2.0 released. This second DOS
version includes hard drive capability, filter commands (sort,
find, more), and a new floppy format system for 360K capacity
per floppy. IBM bios code upgraded.
October 1983. IBM PC JR released. Market disappointment for that
IBM entry into the home market with the underpowered PC JR. The
larger IBM PC standard is rapidly growing as the standard for
personal computers and clones.
March 1984. IBM PC portable introduced. Portable clones already
on the market with small but growing success.
August 1984. IBM PC AT machine arrives. More power, a new
processor (Intel 80286). New screen display standard (EGA). Also
new version of DOS 3.0. This version of DOS now takes into
account the AT high density floppy drive (1.2 meg or million
characters of capacity), read only files and a new disk write
system for better file recovery in case of errors. Shortly
thereafter, DOS 3.1 addresses file sharing.
November 1985. Microsoft windows graphic display environment
released. NEC multisync monitor is released.
December 1985. DOS 3.2 supports the new 3.5 inch 720K diskettes.
DOS now addresses up to 32MB on a single hard disk.
April 1986. Older IBM PC standard model discontinued for newer
models. IBM PC convertible model is released.
September 1986. Compaq jumps the gun on IBM with release of new
(80386) processor computer with more power than the PC AT.
April 1987. IBM PS/2 models 30, 50 and 60 released. DOS 3.3
released. VGA video standard arrives. IBM blesses the new 3.5
inch minifloppy already in use on Apple Macintosh computers by
offering that format on IBM machines. 1.44MB format is supported
for high density floppy users. OS/2 operating system announced.
August 1987. Microsoft windows version 2.0 arrives.
November 1988. DOS 4.01 released which includes a shell menu
interface system. This release of DOS, largely developed by IBM,
generally ignored due to poor performance and large memory
requirements. Many users stick with DOS 3.3.
1988 Laptop computers, smaller versions of desktop computers,
are sold in large volumes. Size as well as features become
issues in computer sales.
1990 Microsoft introduces Windows version 3.0 which includes a
superb graphical user interface (GUI) display for the PC.
Improves on earlier versions of Windows. Using software is more
productive with multiple graphical software windows and the
possibility of jumping between several software tasks operating
on screen. But windows can only run acceptably on more expensive
"high end" machines such as those containing the 386DX or 386SX
chip. For many users in small offices or home offices, Windows
may not be a necessity where simple DOS applications offer
affordable functionality on low priced PC's not equipped to run
Windows applications.
1991 Laptop computers, portable FAX systems, and cellular
portable phone technology allow computers to function anywhere
on the go for a practical "portable office" concept. Still newer
"palmtop" computers about the size of portable calculators now
offer full IBM compatable functionality.
June 1991. DOS 5.0 is released which includes excellent new
features including an improved menu interface, full-screen
editor which improves on the Edlin editor, some limited task-
swapping abilities, unformat/unerase utility, improved Basic
interpreter, and ability to load system files to High Memory on
machines having at least 1MB for improved performance and
increased conventional memory availability for primary applications.
DOS 5.0 is seen to be a major and highly necessary update to the
PC operating system. Generally receives good reviews from computer
trade press.
The future? Difficult to predict, but the consensus of industry
observers is that the IBM PS/2 computers will migrate into the
office scene while many home and home/office users will stay
with older XT computers and AT models. Best entry level computer
system at this time is judged by many experts to the a 386SX PC
system which allows many types of software both current and
future to work reliably. Prices continue to tumble on AT and XT
compatibles ($400 to $500 range) and AT clones ($700 to
$900 range). The operating system for AT and higher class machines
(using 80286/80386 processors) is called OS/2 but requires more
memory and the 80286/80386 processor found only in higher
priced computers. OS/2 or Windows may slowly replace the older
DOS system, but for many users of home and home/office machines
not needing LAN networks (many computers talk to each other and
share data), the DOS standard will live a long time. The Microsoft
Windows 3.0 system may delay the acceptance of OS/2 for several
years.
In general expect things to happen faster, computers to become
still smaller and prices to descend still further! Graphical
user interfaces or GUI's will gradually become the standard so
that users can point and click at small icon pictures and lists
of tasks on screen to accomplish the work at hand rather than
fight with terse and cryptic commands. Computing will become a
standard in many small and home offices owing to the incredible
power, accuracy and affordablity of personal computers. Laptop
computers and even smaller palmtop computers will become new
standards. Computers and modems linked by wireless cellular
radio/telephone technology allow a single computer user the
power of "large office computing" on the go from anywhere in the
world! Shareware software will make strong inroads into the
market as users evaluate commercial "high priced" software
against user support "low cost" shareware software.
Tutorial finished. Be sure to order your FOUR BONUS DISKS which
expand this software package with vital tools, updates and
additional tutorial material for laptop users! Send $20.00 to
Seattle Scientific Photography, Department LAP, PO Box 1506,
Mercer Island, WA 98040. Bonus disks shipped promptly! Some
portions of this software package use sections from the larger
PC-Learn tutorial system which you will also receive with your
order. Modifications, custom program versions, site and LAN
licenses of this package for business or corporate use are
possible, contact the author. This software is shareware - an
honor system which means TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. Press escape key to
return to menu.